Beyond DACA - Defying Employer Sanctions Through Civil Disobedience

Report Author:

Bill Ong Hing

Original Date of Publication:

2017 Dec

Described as a working draft, this paper lays out the case for employers to engage in civil disobedience by continuing to employ Dreamers, i.e. recipients of DACA, if and when their employment authorization expires (either because legal challenges to the revocation of DACA fail and/or Congress fails to find a legislative solution to the problem). The author is Bill Ong Hing, Professor of Law and Migration Studies at the University of San Francisco. Hing notes that hundreds of companies have already gone on record in support of the Dreamer cause. Whether they will stand by their Dreamer employees in any future moment of reckoning remains to be seen. The paper reviews the fines and penalties facing companies found in violation of the law and discusses the moral and philosophical case for civil disobedience, especially as found in a 2010 book by legal scholar Daniel T. Ostas. The author concludes that the impact of such a massive show of support for Dreamers could "prove vital to bringing about a permanent, fair outcome for Dreamers. (Diversity Dynamics)